wake you up with a dawn full of golden rays

i want you around

A sermon on the First Chapter of Ruth

Like so many good stories this one begins on the run.
After a famine hits, Naomi and her husband pack-up, get the boys in their carseats and say goodbye to their old life in search of a better one…

…It’s a familiar story, isn’t it?

I grew up in a small town, west and north of here. By small I mean, 8 blocks long by three blocks wide. My friends and I, we spent high school talking about how once we left, we’d never go back. How we were going to leave and find something better.
…Only, it’s not that simple, is it? The past doesn’t let go of us so easily.

And it’s no different for Naomi, either.
She can only run for so long before everything she’s been running from, catches up with her…. And in spades, too.

First, Death comes for her husband. 

And then, if that weren’t enough, right when her boys get to be the age when Naomi can start expecting grandchildren, Death finds her again… 

By the time her second boy dies, Naomi doesn’t even need to meet with the funeral director. She already knows how the ins and outs of the service.

Burying her second child, Naomi remembers when she packed up the family in search of something better, and how now, all she has to show is; nothing…

When she left, at least she had a family and enough to get by on. But now as she packs her bags yet again, she has even less… 

You ever feel like that?
Those times in life when it seems like it doesn’t matter what you do. As if you’ve been cursed. Like there’s nowhere you can run to escape the cards you’ve been dealt. 

We’ve all felt that way…

A few years ago, after I’d been here while, I was talking to a friend from college. And he pointed out that when I graduated and went East, I said I was never coming back. 

And yet, here I was…

That’s sort of what it was like for Naomi. 

The jig was up. There was nowhere else to go. Defeated, Naomi headed back to the place she’d left long ago in hopes of finding something better.
But the bitterness of all she’d lost was too much. One by one Naomi cut ties with every memento from her old life. 

In fact, she even made plans to change her name. And that’s what loss does, doesn’t it? It makes us feel like we’re not who we used to be anymore.

Her former daughter-in-law, Ruth, the last reminder of her old life, though, won’t leave. She follows Naomi. Clings to her…

When Naomi returns to Bethlehem with Ruth in toe, Naomi’s lost is displayed for all to see. That’s why her return causes a stir…

And ain’t that always the way?

Doesn’t this story hit just a little too close to home?

We all have something from our past following us around. Don’t we?
It’s like it’s not enough that our past keeps nipping at our heels. It’s that, when it catches us, it marks us. It makes us carry around a reminder of all we’ve lost, our failure and foolishness of ever trying to run…

…Well, I bet you’re thinking about now, “c’mon, Pastor Ryan! It’s Memorial Day weekend! Give us a break! Let’s have something a little lighter!”

And look, I know how you’re feeling! 

But here’s the deal, this is the Good News. Not a fairy tale. And what you need to know about the Good News is, it’s a message that can make a home out of these places we run from! 

It’s an old story. Isn’t it? It begins on the run. But, it doesn’t stay that way. Does it?

You can’t just uproot yourself from our past. In the end, it’s a fool’s errand, really. No matter what, some part from your past will follow you, like persistent Ruth…

Naomi spent her life running… 

First, from famine. Then from funerals. 

But when she had nowhere else to go, all that was left was the place she first fled from… 

& there, Naomi finds what she’d been after!

…Okay, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here! That’s a bit of a spoiler…

This is just the first chapter, and things are bleak. Aren’t they? The optimists among us are waiting for a cinderella story. But don’t hold your breath. Because this is about the Good News. This isn’t some story of glory! This is a story of the God of the cross!

Now, I’m not going to spoil what comes next, but let me tell you; this story gets worse! Or at least, more scandalous!

And that’s how the God of Naomi and her people, the God who homesteaded Bethlehem, the God of the family you’ve been adopted into in your baptism, likes it!

You know, it’s not the worst thing to find yourself back in the place you’ve run from. For my part, I’ve learned nothing gives me so much pleasure as looking at the green sweeping field outlined by a line of trees following a stream, that buttress a forever sky, every shade of blue, with some clouds thrown in there for good measure too…

But what I’m describing is making peace. And what God is offering today is something better. Something that can make peace

Those places you’ve tried to leave for something better, they’re the ones God loves best to homestead! Those fields you’ve run from, they’re the ones God runs to every time! That patch of ground in your life where nothing will grow, is the spot that’s just perfect for God’s grace to sprout up!

It turns out it wasn’t just that first Easter God showed up looking like the gardener. It’s the way God always looks working in the muck, those places we can’t get anything going, where the field lays fallow! 

God loves showing up in the unlikely, the unexpected places!
Paul said it is because God’s foolishness is wiser than our wisdom. Isaiah said it was because God’s was are not are ways! However you describe it, it’s true. God loves to go to those places in our lives where nothing’s doing, and get to work!

It’s an old story, isn’t it? We spend our lives running.

Either trying to get away from those desolate places, showing we have no business being in God’s good company. Or, trying to get to those places where we’ll finally have it all together and can prove we deserve to be in God’s good graces.

But either way, we’re running. The Boss was right, we’re ‘born to run.’

Sadly though, those places we run to aren’t the places God has any interest in being! Because they’re not real! And the God of the cross is the God who meets us when things are real! Like famines and funerals.

Those places we, like Naomi, run from are the places God runs to!

All this stuff in today’s scripture. The stuff we’re waiting for God to change, it’s the very soil God loves best to till! The kind of field God can’t keep away from!

We spend our lives running, don’t we?

But with the God you have, that’s not how it works! You don’t have to run anymore! Long ago, in Jesus Christ, in your baptism; God ran to you! 

And that day, God determined nothing would keep God from you! That God would cling to you more stubbornly than Ruth!

When the harvest fails. When you have nothing to show for all your running, God will be there with a harvest of grace!

We’ve all faced famines and funerals, haven’t we? And we’ve tried to run to greener pastures. But here we are again, with little to show for all our running. 

But now that you’re back, you’re exactly where God wants you!

It’s these kind of conditions that God scouts out every time!

Your disasters. Those ashes of your old life. They’re just perfect for the God of the cross! They’re the kind of land God loves best to call home! 

Those of you who hear today’s scripture and can’t help but feel a kinship with Naomi, you’re just the kind of person Jesus can’t keep away from!

Today’s scripture may be bleak. But they’re beautiful for the God of the cross!

And those bleak places in your life, they’re just as beautiful to the God of the cross! They’re the perfect spot for God to use to answer that old prayer, “Thy kingdom come.”

Those famished parts of your life are the ones God will come and set up shop. Plant the kingdom that operates be grace!

So stop your running. God’s already done that! Come home. There’s a harvest waiting for you

But first a homecoming song…